2 Samuel 14:1-11 ▼

1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart was inclined toward Absalom.

2 So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days;

3 then you shall go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.

4 So the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself and said, “Save, O king.”

5 And the king said to her, “What is your trouble?” And she answered, “Truly I am a widow; my husband has died.

6 And your servant-woman had two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one to deliver between them, so one struck the other and put him to death.

7 And behold, the whole family has risen against your servant-woman, and they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and destroy the heir also.’ Thus they will extinguish my coal which remains, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”

8 Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.”

9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “O my lord, the king, the iniquity is on me and my father’s house, but the king and his throne are guiltless.”

10 So the king said, “Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore.”

11 Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, so that the avenger of blood will not continue to bring about ruin, so that they would not destroy my son.” And he said, “As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”